Paul Clarke, Author at North West End UK

Mamma Mia! goes open air for the first time at historic Harewood House

27Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Mamma Mia! goes open air for the first time at historic Harewood House

Mamma Mia! fans have their only chance to see the record breaking show outside London at the first ever open air production at Harewood House . Casting has been announced for the ‘Mamma Mia! Under the stars’ shows from 13th to 20th August at the historic venue near Leeds. and it’s full of veterans of the London and touring shows, which have has seen by over 65 million people in 50 productions in 16 different languages. Sara Poyzer plays Donna Sheridan, Nicky Swift is Rosie and Helen Anker returns as Tanya. The trio of possible dads are Richard Standing playing Sam Carmichael joined by Phil Corbitt as Bill Austin and Daniel Crowder is Harry Bright. Younger cast members include Lucy May Barker as Sophie Sheridan with Toby Miles as love interest Sky and Jasmine Shen as Al...

27Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Piaf – Leeds Playhouse

Imagine if instead of Beyonce the world’s biggest female star was a foul-mouthed Parisian street urchin who was blessed with a golden voice that lifted her out of the slums to global fame. That’s the story of Edith Piaf – aka The Little Sparrow – and this raucous revival of Pam Gems’ musical biography pulls no punches telling the tale of a damaged woman who flew high before crashing back to earth as like Lady Day she was totally unequipped for the price of fame. If anything, Gems tries too hard to pack in too much of Piaf’s rich life, overegging her rough beginnings, and the second half feels a touch padded. This is not an evening for the faint hearted as the C bomb is dropped a couple of times, among an impressive array of expletives, drawing gasps from some of the more genteel a...

An onstage garden paradise is promised at Leeds Playhouse

27Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

An onstage garden paradise is promised at Leeds Playhouse

During the pandemic precious time spent in the great outdoors has kept many people safe as they strolled round parks or tended their allotments and gardens. In response a team of older performers have decided to create a new botanical paradise on the vast Quarry space at Leeds Playhouse where they will share their personal stories, visions and dreams of times past, present and future creating a garden out of nothing The Promise of a Garden is a show that will blend performance, dance, music, film and photography to create blossoming moments of joy and reflection. Our Yorkshire Editor Paul Clarke asked Alan Lyddiard who is directing The Promise of a Garden to find out what audiences might expect The Promise of a Garden is billed as an unusual hybrid production so what audiences ...

Leeds Playhouse announce Autumn/Winter season

18Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Leeds Playhouse announce Autumn/Winter season

Leeds Playhouse have announced their Autumn-Winter season including Wendy & Peter Pan as their blockbuster festive show. Families will be taken on an unforgettable trip to Neverland from 18th November to 22nd January as the cast fly around Ella Hickon’s adaptation of the J M Barrie classic retelling the story from the unique viewpoint of Wendy Darling. This year’s Leeds West Indian Carnival has been cancelled because of the pandemic, but the King & Queen event is still taking place on 27th August, and for the first time the Prince & Princess is staged a week before. Both shows will be a celebration of emancipation set to sweet sounds of the socabeats and steelpans as the carnival chronicles its 54-year history. Freedom Project from 10th – 18th September melds lived exp...

Mind The Gap turn A Little Space into a film

15Jul

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Mind The Gap turn A Little Space into a film

Mind the Gap and Gecko Theatre have turned their joint production of A Little Space into a movie that is free to view online. Set in a bleak apartment block, A Little Space follows the lives of five people exploring what happens when they connect and disconnect from each other, whether through choice or through isolation. It draws on the performers’ own experiences becoming powerful piece of physical theatre when it first toured in 2019. The cast used movement, imagery, sound, and lighting to portray the needs, desires, and fears of the characters. The two theatre companies worked with award-winning Newcastle-based Meerkat Films to bring the piece to the screen and promise that audiences can expect ‘a mash up of theatre and film’. “Streaming has come into its own thro...

Leeds Playhouse’s James Brining talks about staging A Little Night Music with Opera North

27Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Interviews

Leeds Playhouse’s James Brining talks about staging A Little Night Music with Opera North

Most people have heard the haunting Send In The Clowns but how many could say which musical it is from? Well, it’s just one of a bunch of brilliant tunes penned by Oscar and multiple Tony winner Stephen Sondheim for A Little Night Music that traces the complicated and interlocking relationships of several Swedish couples at the dawn of the twentieth century. Inspired by Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night, Sondheim’s challenging score and an intelligent book by Hugh Wheeler offers genuine insights into the high and lows of human relationships. Leeds Playhouse’s Artistic Director James Brining was gearing up to direct A Little Night Music as his latest coalition with Opera North, but then the pandemic struck. Now the company including the legendary Dame Josephine Barstow are...

13Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

The Damned United – Leeds Playhouse

The last time I saw this Leeds United were in the midst of one of their regular comedic play offs collapse, but now they are riding high in the Premier League this punchy tale of hubris at Elland Road has extra resonance. It’s nominally the tale of Brian Howard Clough’s disastrous 44 day reign at Yorkshire’s biggest club after taking unfancied Derby County to the First Division title, but it is a story about obsession and madness that will reach non football fans too. The Damned United is based on David Peace’s semi-fictional novel tracing Clough’s descent into a personal hell. Anders Lustgarten’s tight adaptation captures all the psychological demons swirling round Ol’ Big Head’s fractured psyche as he takes on a team of seasoned pros loyal who he hates as ‘cheats’, but they h...

11Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Atalanta Forever – Halifax Piece Hall

On the day after the first ever female chair of the Football Association was announced this witty and powerful piece about the pioneers of the women’s game being banned by a bunch of misogynists in a committee room couldn’t be more pertinent. These footballing underdogs are classic Mikron Theatre territory as a fictional Huddersfield factory girl and a posh teacher come together under the watchful eye of even posher Miss Waller to form Atalanta Ladies raising money for starving wondered soldiers in the years after the war to end all wars. My only criticism is that Mikron often play posh characters off against the working class, and that idea has run its course. Bit of context here for non-footie fans as in 1921 Preston’s Dick Kerr’s Ladies played in front of 51000 at a Boxing Day gam...

Casting announced for Dracula: The Untold Story

9Jun

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NEWS

Casting announced for Dracula: The Untold Story

Leeds Playhouse and imitating the dog have announced the casting for their premiere of Dracula: The Untold Story. It’s a typically radical new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic gothic horror novel told from the perspective of Mina Harker, the novel’s heroine. Leona Allen will play Mina Harker joined by Matt Prendergast and Adela Rajnović who play all the other roles. Just before midnight on New Year's Eve in 1965, as revellers in London celebrate the beginning of another year, a young woman enters Marylebone Police Station and confesses to a brutal murder. She claims to be Mina Harker, the last living survivor of the intrepid group that brought about Count Dracula’s destruction some 70 years before. But Mina Harker has not been seen since 1901. And if she were alive, she woul...

Slung Low and Freedom Studios team up to premiere new short plays for radio

9Jun

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

NEWS

Slung Low and Freedom Studios team up to premiere new short plays for radio

Two of Yorkshire’s best known theatre companies are staging an afternoon of new short plays written for radio to be performed in front of a live audience. For the past decade Leeds based Slung Low have been running 15 Minutes Live and this time they will partner with acclaimed Bradford theatre company Freedom Studios. They’ve commissioned six playwrights to write an original short play to be recorded in front of a live audience at The Holbeck venue in Leeds on Saturday 10th July at 2pm. This year’s line-up of writers is Tom Wells, Aina J Khan, Ben Tagoe, Leeds based actor-musician Claire-Marie Seddon, Rani Moorthy and Ray Sesay. 15 Minutes Live includes on-stage sound effects, audience participation and live music woven into the performance. The audience will be guided thro...